


come play with me for the summer, let's go upstate

by kwritten



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: "take a break" but in the Burr household, Aaron is a dork, F/M, Gen, One Big Happy Family, aaron is a little shit, alexander is a bigger little shit, and aaron is eliza and theo is hamilton, angelica just wants to play, eliza is everyone's long-suffering wife, everyone loves theo, ignoring historical facts left and right, not even canon if you squint, the schuyler sisters adopt baby theodosia, theo being amazing, theo being done with everyone, theo is eliza two-point-oh in training, this is fluff okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-20
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-25 17:28:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7541554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kwritten/pseuds/kwritten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Theo is busy in her office trying to juggle a busy social calendar as one of the leading hostesses of New York when Aaron comes home with big plans for a holiday up-State and Angelica thinks it's a great idea. </p><p>OR:</p><p>Aaron is always trying to run away from the shit-storms that He creates and Theo won't let him.</p><p>OR:</p><p>Aaron and Angelica are toddlers and Theo is the only adult in New York.</p>
            </blockquote>





	come play with me for the summer, let's go upstate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [clytemnestras](https://archiveofourown.org/users/clytemnestras/gifts).



> for my darling Lucy to make her smile because she so often makes me cry and I genuinely love that about her

“Just burn all the invitations from people you hate and pretend you never received them,” Angelica suggested helpfully from the doorway. It was a Tuesday morning around eleven, too early for visitors but much too late for her to still be wandering around in an old pair of Aaron’s trousers. She favored a pair with a mysterious dark brown stain on the upper thigh that may or may not be evidence of a war-time wound. 

Theodosia pursed her lips and glanced up from the desk piled with papers, invitations, scribbled notes, and at least five opened books, “Have I told you how precious and helpful you are? I’m so delighted that you’ve decided to wake and grace my office with your presence.”

Angelica flopped herself down on the bedraggled sofa and took in the old tea set on the low table, the piles of books and mending and molding, muddy boots in the corner. “ _Your_ office?”

Theodosia tossed an embossed invitation onto the pile near her right foot and frowned, “Well since you’ve decided to stay here instead of with one of your dozens of in-laws,” Angelica made a face, “I’ve consequently had to take over Aaron’s home office… such as it is.”

Angelica dismissed the girl’s habit of calling her father by his Christian name when she was irritated with him (she was terribly often irritated with him) and instead thought of the sitting room across the hall laid out in soft purples and greens much like a valley of blooming violets, and the impressively organized and ornate desk against the windows overlooking the street. For the past month, Angelica had taken over the room for her own amusement, as she did every time she came into town and found herself bored or annoyed with her relations. (or, to put it a bit more bluntly: in need of that special sort of domesticity that she could only find in the Burr household, with young Theo at the head of the table and Aaron smiling on.) A faint sense of guilt creeped up her spine, until she looked up and found Theodosia smirking at her. 

“You’re a beast,” Angelica hissed. 

Theodosia shrugged, “He blames my mother for that in the winter and himself in the summer.”

Angelica turned onto her stomach, leaning against the arm of the sofa and kicking her bare feet up into the air as she watched Theodosia craft an apology letter to one of the other mistresses of New York. As much as she enjoyed these trips home, to _her_ city – something in Angelica’s very blood made up of the dirt and clattering energy found in the streets of this place – she also was glad to wash her hands of the social politics, pick up her skirts, and leave whenever she wanted. Angelica Schuyler ~~(Church)~~ was every mistresses’ dream – a sensation in conversation, personality, drama, and dress – and loved most of all the pleasure of leaving the party behind to tuck into bed and not have to worry about any clean-up the following morning. 

Somehow, in the midst of the whirlwind of New York politics, little Theodosia Burr was a formidable hostess in her own right, gathering to her father’s table the brightest and most fashionable in a way that seemed effortless. 

She was possibly one of the most frightening young ladies of Angelica’s acquaintance. A fact that the older woman would never admit to anyone outside of her own sisters – who generally agreed with her in this as in most things. 

(If they were all honest with each other, and they often were: Schuylers prided themselves on being honest at the very least with each other, then little Theo Burr was possibly the _most_ terrifying creature any of them had ever beheld outside of their own nursery. But they’d never tell her that directly. Instead, they treated her as they saw her: as the fourth and most formidable Schuyler.

In other words: Peggy spoiled her, Eliza enabled her, Angelica teased her too much by half, and they all coveted her like other women coveted small dogs and shoes.)

“What is on the agenda tonight, little beast?” Angelica half-teased, half-scolded. Since she had arrived, the dining room at the Burr residence had hosted a veritable parade of diplomats and scholars and socialites and if it wasn’t for the fact that she trusted Theodosia to be doing all this for the sake of Burr’s career, she would have resented it. 

Also, she enjoyed flirting with Thomas and watching Burr squirm across the room. 

Theodosia generally ignored any of Angelica’s wheedling – knowing that if she kept the night’s guest list a surprise, there was a much likelier chance that the other woman wouldn’t dart off to crash the Hamilton’s equally impressive dinner party, a trick taught to her by Eliza during a previous Season after Angelica kept ruining her sister’s carefully planned seating charts – but on that afternoon she was just opening her mouth to tell her… when Burr himself came striding into the room, still clad in his riding habit despite the late hour. 

“We’re going on holiday up-State,” he announced grandiosely. 

Angelica was reminded of a peacock strutting about and Theodosia just looked bored. 

Though neither woman seemed impressed, he didn’t seem to notice and instead, beamed down at them, “Pack your things ladies! I have a mind to see Niagara and I can think of nothing lovelier than a trip for you two out of this dusty city.”

Theodosia peered up at him for a moment as if he was a puppy that had just soiled the carpet for the third time that day, weighed the implications of scolding him, and then turned back to her papers. Angelica had become so accustomed to Theo taking lead when Aaron proposed something at odds with their social engagements, that she found herself floundering for words and opted to just enable him. What harm could a short trip into the Northern Wilds really do?

“Shall we ride, then?” the thought of several days on horseback, Theo picking flowers and sketching picturesque scenes where there was nothing but trees and sky, while Aaron pontificated and they teased him and the wind blew her hair suddenly seemed like the most delicious luxury. 

Aaron brightened and moved to sit down beside her on the sofa, she twisted up and around, plopping her head into his lap the moment he was settled, one hand immediately seeking hers out and the other tangling itself up in her hair. “Yes, let’s ride.” 

Theodosia loved to ride. When she wasn’t at her desk or transcribing her father’s speeches and letters or holding court at one of her elaborate salons, she was on her horse racing about the parks and streets of the city as if they were her personal playground.

“Timothy and Lavinia can follow in the carriage with the trunks,” Angelica planned aloud, willing to leave New York, but _not_ her ladies’ maid, sleepily contemplating Aaron’s hand that had escaped her fingers and was now tracing circles on her thigh and whether she would have time to pull him into the linen closet before they left. 

A strange sort of grunting sound came from the area behind Angelica’s head where Theo was sitting, and she smiled a bit to herself. 

“Maybe we can invite Philip, surely Eliza can spare him for a week or two.”

Alright, so maybe it was a little mean-spirited bringing up Theo’s nemesis. 

It wasn’t his fault that he was the only male of her generation allowed anywhere near her. It probably _was_ his fault that as children he made it his life’s mission to make her cry at every family party. 

It wasn’t her fault – necessarily – that the women of his family believed that every other girl he took a shine to paled in comparison to Theodosia. It absolutely _was_ her fault that since puberty, she had made it her life’s mission to make him look a fool at every family party. 

Their rivalry kept things interesting – as if the family was lacking in interest. 

Despite the teasing, no one (except their fathers) saw any romantic relationship in their future. The threat of such a union kept Aaron and Alexander on their toes and was an easy hand to play whenever a Schuyler was feeling mischievous. 

Aaron stiffened his spine slightly, so Angelica pulled on his chin and winked at him, which only made him scowl at her. Even on his best days, Aaron did not take kindly to being teased. 

Which was a shame, since the two women he spent the most of his time with dearly loved to tease him. 

“I think I’m going to ring for some tea,” Theo said suddenly, ignoring Angelica’s comment entirely. 

A footman immediately appeared at the ringing of her little silver bell and instructions for tea were given quickly and quietly as Angelica and Aaron plotted their little trip in more detail, planning castles in the air both were sure would fall immediately, but neither seemed to care. Sometimes it was nice to hide in Aaron’s slightly moldy office on a sofa no one should by rights still be sitting on, while Theo handled things in the background and the world went on outside, filtering through the window as if the real world was the dream and this moment together was the only real thing in the universe. 

After a moment, the silence broken only by muffled noises trickling up from the street and Theodosia rustling papers, another footman appeared bearing a silver tray with a card on it.

“That’s not tea,” Angelica grumbled, which caused the poor boy to blush brightly. 

“A caller at this hour, Peter?” Theodosia asked kindly. 

Which was odd, since Angelica had been woken up by Theo speaking loudly and angrily to one of the footmen just an hour ago that she was _not_ receiving visitors that day. 

“A messenger,” the boy choked out, shifting from foot to foot. 

“Send him in!” Theo said brightly. After the nervous footman had scurried off, she called out, “And then we can pack for your adventure, father.”

Aaron hummed happily to himself, lightly braiding a strand of Angelica’s hair. 

Angelica on her part stayed very, very still. She had a feeling that Aaron’s plans were about to be foiled. 

A small and rather dirty looking child was suddenly pushed into the room, his gap-toothed mouth open agape as he (she?) stared with wide-eyes about the room. 

“Say your piece,” the footman said gruffly. Suddenly in his element now that there was a lesser being to look down his nose at. 

The urchin wrinkled their nose and then opened their mouth wide, “ _FUCK YOU AND THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON, BURR._ ”

Angelica sprung up into an upright position and stared at the child. Theodosia uttered a little sound that sounded a bit like a laugh but might have been a cough or even a choking giggle, it didn’t matter. Aaron didn’t stir. 

The child smiled a charming gap-toothed smile at Angelica and then dropped into something like a half-curtsey, half-bow, “ _Your obedient servant, Aye – dot – Ham._ ”

Theo paid the child handsomely (and possibly placed a kiss on top of their dirt-smudged forehead) before sending them off with the footman to the kitchen for a warm meal. The small children in the neighborhood that gathered in rough little gangs knew to put on a charming smile for the ladies Burr and Hamilton, because it usually ended with a warm meal and possibly a new coat. 

Angelica waited until the messenger was safely out of earshot before springing up off the couch and turning on Aaron, while Theodosia pretended not to be amused behind her desk. “Burr. What have you done now?”

Aaron sighed, “I suppose this means that we have to host dinner tonight, ay Theo?”

Angelica waved her hands at both of them, annoyed and pretending not to be mildly amused because in moments like this, she needed to at least _play_ at being stern, she just truly loved the two of them too much it never seemed to matter what kind of a mess they got themselves into…. Not that Theo _ever_ made a mess. It was more that Theo’s attempts to corral her father amused Angelica nearly as much as the scrapes Aaron always seemed to be getting himself in. 

And if her brother-in-law was involved, it was probably equally parts absurd and serious. 

(And even if her brother-in-law was involved, Theo was the one woman in New York who could fix it with a simple dinner party.)

She sighed deeply and looked down her nose at Aaron, “What. Did. You. Do.”

 

_Meanwhile at the Hamilton residence…._

 

“War hero Philip Schuyler loses senate seat to young upstart Aaron Burr. Grandpa just lost his seat in the senate,” Philip Hamilton read aloud to his mother over tea. 

Eliza shrugged mildly, “Sometimes that’s how it goes.”

“Dad’s gonna find out any minute.”

Eliza thought of the young tow-headed child she’d just seen scurrying down the walk toward the Burr home, “I’m sure he already knows.”

Philip shook his head and turned back to the paper. His mother and aunts may be terrified of Theodosia Burr, but he’d put money on his mother over anyone else in New York any day.


End file.
